Big Dreams, Small Hands
20 Jan 2022
Flash Back
Growing up, my family had one of those bulky off-white computers that were a solid cubic foot and had extremely loud keyboards. Whenever my dad wasn’t using it for work, I would scramble up onto the seat and use it for myself. I usually spent my computer time just playing flash games from Nick Jr, or PBS Kids. I fancied myself quite tech-savvy for being able to type in a web-address with my pointer fingers and navigate to the dress-up game I was obsessed with.
Of course, as I got older (and after I learned how to properly type on a keyboard), I realized that I really didn’t know anything about computers at all. While I never took an actual computer science class until high school, I took the learning into my own hands. Mostly, this just meant I did the HTML and JavaScript courses that were available at Khan Academy. I was always interested in trying to make games like the ones I played as a kid, and the possibilities for the websites I could make intrigued me as well.
How Do You Say, “Hello World,” Again?
After learning your first programming language, it’s a lot easier to learn another. And another. And another. While they differ syntactically, a lot of programming languages share the same core concepts, which makes it easier to pick up a second programming language after the first one. Of course, each programming language has its own quirks and abilities, but the learning curve isn’t as steep. I hope to learn even more programming languages and am able to create things in a variety of mediums. Creating apps versus websites versus games versus any other program each requires their own skill-sets, and I want to try my hand at all of them.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work
In addition to trying to make a whole variety of programs, I also hope to better develop my skills in working in a team for a project. While I have worked in groups in the past, it was never on a coding or software engineering project. A lot of coding projects I’ve completed in the past were done entirely on my own. Working on a team makes things so much more efficient, but the success of a team depends on clear communication and a proper delegation of tasks. I hope to gain the experience of working with a team to create a final product that we’re all proud of.